- PHOTOS BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER
PHOTOS BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER
TRAER – The North Tama Redhawks baseball team earned a tough conference win over the Colo-NESCO Royals on Friday, June 26, at J.L. Lister Field in Traer before the victory was negated by forfeit due to a pitch-count issue.
The two teams battled throughout the nearly complete game. The Royals quickly ran up a 4-0 lead in the first inning, during which North Tama sophomore pitcher Kadeyn Velasco threw 23 pitches and allowed two hits and four runs while also walking four batters before senior pitcher Kayler Morris took to the mound in relief with bases loaded. Two more runs were scored.
North Tama was unable to score in the bottom of the first and the Royals also failed to score in the top of the second before the Redhawks scored three runs on three hits in the bottom. Neither team scored in the third, while the Redhawks managed another four runs on two hits and two errors in the fourth to pull ahead of the Royals, 7-6.
In the top of the fifth, the Royals hit one to the left-field fence, sending a runner home to tie, 7-7. The Redhawks then replaced Morris with freshman pitcher Aidyn Brown. Colo-NESCO scored on a bunt before scoring again due to an error.
The Redhawks flipped the tables in the bottom of the fifth, racking up nine runs on five hits and three errors. Highlights included Kayler Morris’ massive hit to right field with bases loaded, sending two Redhawks home; senior Clayton Williams’ similar smack to the outfield, which also sent two runners across home plate; and sophomore Maddox Rausch’s heavenly pop fly to center that was unexpectedly dropped by the Royals, allowing another two runs to score.
The score was now 16-9 heading into the sixth. Colo-NESCO managed two runs. North Tama then scored once more in the bottom – Velasco singled before making it home on an error after stealing third.
As the sixth inning mercifully ended, a Colo-NESCO player in the dugout could be overheard commenting, “This is a long game.”
Brown threw three consecutive strikeouts in the top of the seventh to sunset the game and secure the win, 17-11.
When contacted by the newspaper Monday, North Tama activities director Andrew Knaack confirmed the forfeit, but said the statistics remained.
Before the forfeit, Brown took the win for the Redhawks, pitching 51 pitches and allowing two hits and three runs, one walk, one hit batter and five strikeouts. North Tama had 12 hits, including two doubles by Kayler Morris and eighth-grader Hunter Dostal.
North Tama (8-9) enters the postseason tonight, Friday, July 3, against Clarksville (5-10) at Wapsie Valley High School in Fairbank in a Class 1A Substate 4 first-round game.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.northtamatelegraph.com ’
